Fashion’s Best Instagram Accounts Barely Show Clothes at All

Though most brands use the social media site to post their collections, some like the Row are going off-script with delightful results

ON BRAND Creative fashion labels are filling their feeds with esoteric images from architecture to palm fronds.
Photo:
Getty Images

By

Erica Euse

April 18, 2019 3:36 pm ET

ON INSTAGRAM, fashion’s social media site of choice, most labels fill their feeds with photos of models wielding tiny handbags or lost in oversize denim. Not the Row. The luxury label, helmed by Mary-Kate and
Ashley Olsen,
is more liable to post a rainbow-colored child’s drawing, an interior by Le Corbusier or an Irving Penn still-life of a watermelon and half-eaten baguette. It’s an addictively sophisticated, surprising feed.

This shunning of clothes is part of a trend in which brands use Instagram accounts as digital mood boards instead of merely cataloging their garments, according to Rony Zeidan, the founder of branding agency Ro New York. “People don’t necessarily follow the Row to see the latest collection…[but] because they like to get a glimpse of what the designer is doing or thinking,” he said.

For the past three years, the Row has included very few pictures of its minimalist clothing among its more obtuse, artsy posts. The strategy clearly appeals to its one-million followers who shower the posts with thousands of likes. As one commenter said, “This account always excites me.”

Italian brand Bottega Veneta has uploaded just 14 pictures since new creative director Daniel Lee was hired last year. Among them: mysterious images that evoke David Lynch films—a handbag filled with tomatoes or an unidentified woman squatting behind a chair. As one commenter mused: “This won’t sell any bags LOL.” Or will it?

WSJ opens select articles to reader conversation to promote thoughtful dialogue. See the 'Join the Conversation' area to the rightbelow for stories open to conversation. For more information, please reference our community guidelines. Email feedback and questions to moderator@wsj.com.